Friday, January 27, 2017

State vows to probe reports on Gombe deforestation

REPORTS of deforestation endangering chimpanzees at
Gombe National Park have alarmed the government, which has promised to probe
the allegations. The Permanent Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Tourism and
Natural Resources, Major General Gaudence Milanzi, said in Dar es Salaam
yesterday that the government will accord the matter the appropriate weight it
deserves.The ministry quickly responded yesterday to the new report by the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), with the impact of
deforestation around the park. NASA collaborated with the US Geological Survey
(USGS) to capture the images with the Landsat satellite in efforts to help in
the conservation of chimpanzees, which are described as endangered species. The
report, published on the ‘Mail Online’ newspaper of the United Kingdom, says
that increased pressure on the land due to population explosion and poverty has
led to the forest clearance for agriculture, logging and charcoal production.
There are some 345,000 or fewer chimps in the wild, with the International
Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifying them as critically
endangered species. “We, in the ministry, need to work on these reports ...
claims that chimpanzees at the park are at risk should be looked into
critically,” Major General Milanzi noted with concern. He said it was fortunate
that either the natural resources minister or his deputy will be heading to the
area this weekend to award Dr Jane Goodall, a famous British primatologist who
has been tirelessly protecting the chimpanzee at the park since early 1970s. He
argued, however, that generally deforestation was not a new challenge and the
government has been fighting against it in many parts of the country.

Chimpanzees in the region used to live in an uninterrupted belt of forests and
woodlands from Lake Tanganyika westward through Uganda and the Congo Basin to
western Africa. The report says it was in the early 1970s, 10 or so years after
Dr Goodall first arrived in the region and began conserving chimpanzees that
forest began to be cut down. Today the belt per se has gone because it’s being
divided into increasingly small fragments,’ said Dr Jane Goodall (82), who is
still involved in conservation efforts at her namesake institute. But NASA, the
USGS and the Jane Goodall Institute have collaborated in an effort to conserve
the chimps and the forest. “When deforestation happens, important ecological
functions and services are lost - impacting both chimps and people. The
chimpanzees lose feeding and nesting grounds and it is very difficult for the
territorial animals to shift their home range to another location,” said Dr
Lilian Pintea, the Vice-President of Conservation science for the Jane Goodall
Institute Dr Pintea said: “When we first got our landsat satellite images from
‘72 and ‘99, we made a natural color composite of Gombe and the area outside
Gombe and put them side-by-side and realised that lots of deforestation
happened. Added, she: “You can see it, the villages lost maybe 90 to 80 per
cent of the forest cover. And they will tell stories about how the hills were
covered in forest. But then when you show them a picture, it’s very shocking to
everybody, realising what has been lost.”

AWARD 1

I won the second prize in policy category of the African Information society Initiative ( AISI) awards 2004 which is annually organized by the United Nations- Economic Commission for Africa ( UNECA) based in Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia. On the first photo above standing with other awardees after the Ceremony at the National Settlers monument in Grahamstown, South Africa.This was during the 8th Highway Africa Conference.The second photo shows the cross section of Jounalists from different African countries who attended the ceremony.

AWARD 2

I also won the AISI-GKP/SDC Media Award special reporting on WSIS process and Africa, and conferred with the award in Tunis, Tunisia during WSIS summit in 2005. See the photo above.

AWARD 3

Winner on the Media Competition on writing about " Stigma denial and Discrimination" associated with HIV/AIDS. This was organized by theAssociation of Journalists Against Aids in Tanzania ( AJAAT). On the Photo above President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete of Tanzania, ( then the Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation) was the guest of honour during the award giving ceremony.This was at Maelezo auditorium in Dar-es-Salaam September 2005.

AWARD 4

Winner on the Media Competition on writing about "Vulnerable Children" associated with HIV/AIDS This was organized by the Association of Journalists Against Aids in Tanzania ( AJAAT)

AWARD 5

Winner of the National ICT Media Award organized By SWOPNET in the Country. On the photo above Morogoro Regional Commissioner, Brigadier General ( Rt) Saidi Kalembo was the guest of honour during the award giving ceremony which was held at New Sarvoy Hotel in morogoro town.I was awarded a Mobile phone and a tape-recorder.

AWARD 6

I participated in the Media Competition in writing about VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Testing) in Tanzania which was held between July 15th and October 30th 2008 whereby I emerged among the top five winners. The competition was under the program known as “Tanzania bila Ukwimwi inawezekana” which literally means, Tanzania without AIDS disease transmission is possible”. This is a program which was organizedby the Association of Journalists Against AIDS in Tanzania (AJAAT) under TACAIDS funding. In the photo, I am being presented with a certificate of participation by the Chairman of the Tanzania Commission for AIDS (TACAIDS) Dr. Fatma Mrisho in a colorful ceremony which was held on 22nd December 2008 at Tanzania Information Centre in Dar es Salaam.

AWARD 7

AWARD 8

AWARD 9

I was among the top 17 best selected students who excelled in their final examinations of the 2010/2011 academic year and awarded with the Vice-Chancellor’s prize. I scored 4.5 GPA (First Class) in BA in Journalism. Above I am being given a certificate by the Chairman of the Open University of Tanzania Board of Senate. Standing at the centre facing camera is the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Tolly Mbwette. Extreme left partly hidden is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Professor Elifas Bisanda. This occasion took place during the convocation meeting, a day before the graduation day at the prospective permanent headquarter of the Open University of Tanzania which is currently under construction at Bungo-Kibaha in Coast region 40 kilometers away west of Dar es Salaam city.